


A Little Bit Of Romance

by methamphetamine



Series: ...and the infinite ache [2]
Category: Black Lagoon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Blood and Gore, F/F, Gun Violence, Romance, no you cant stop me, yes there are several of my ocs in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-23 16:01:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methamphetamine/pseuds/methamphetamine
Summary: A short snippet into Cassidy and Balalaika's love life, plus an extra.





	A Little Bit Of Romance

It was late in the evening, a gentle sea breeze carrying the stench of copper coins and cigarette smoke across the harbour. Balalaika stood, with two guards on either side of her, illuminated by a single streetlamp, looking down upon the latest client of Hotel Moscow. The man knelt in front of her was short and stocky in build and his hair was closely shaved to his head, giving him a rather thuggish appearance. His name? Balalaika didn't quite know, she made it no business of hers to know her clients on a personal level, especially when they hadn't paid.

"Now, are you going to pay the money you owe us Mr...?"

"Sanders!" The man said frantically, practically shouting into the concrete. Balalaika nodded and smiled to herself. She sent a glance to each of the suited men beside her, that single look telling them everything that they needed to know. The streetlight that illuminated the four of them flickered for a second, plunging them momentarily into twilight.

"Get up." She said pleasantly, stepping backwards slightly to allow Mr Sanders to pick himself off of the floor. Her bodyguards cocked their weapons threateningly, just in case he tried anything, although it looked like poor Mr Sanders was on the brink of soiling his underwear. 

"T-thank yo-" He began to say, reaching out towards her. Balalaika harshly slapped his hand away, a flicker of anger passing across her scarred face.

"Make another attempt to touch me and I'll have your tongue cut out." She said, giving him a tight smile. Mr Sanders blinked and nodded furiously. Balalaika sighed and turned to the guard on her right. "Make sure we have the money by Wednesday, if not, you know what to do."

"Yes Capitan." Said the guards in perfectly timed unison, leading Mr Sanders away from her. Balalaika looked around, making sure she was utterly alone before taking out her phone. She dialled a number that often saw use and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Hello?" Said a voice from the phone's speakers. Balalaika let a small smile cross her face.

"Good evening Cassidy." She said, tiny grin still firmly in place. Cassidy let out a laugh from the other end of the phone; the sound was intoxicating. 

"Well well, if it ain't my baby." Said the other woman. "What can a gal like me do for a pretty thing like you on this fine Monday evening?"

"Shall we meet at our usual place?" Asked Balalaika. 

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Be there at eight?"

"Yes, see you in half an hour." 

After they had both hung up, Balalaika strode towards the place where her personal driver, Dimitri, would be meeting her. She made sure to tuck the phone safely away in her pocket, it did contain some rather... sensitive information after all. 

As she rounded the corner, the car appeared in her vision, parked in it’s usual place on the pavement. Dimitri was sat in the vehicle, nodding his head to what was no doubt country music. Balalaika smiled, that man had been one of her most faithful companions over the years; he had served with her in the military and stuck to her like glue ever since. In fact, he had been the one who had introduced her to Cassidy, her girlfriend. Balalaika didn’t trust easily, but that man had her complete faith. 

She pulled open the door of the car and gracefully got in, laughing as Dimitri scrambled to turn off his bad taste in music and start the car at the same time.

“It’s fine,” She said. “Just this once, you can leave it on.” The look she got from Dimitri was one of astonishment as they pulled away from the curb.

“что?” He asked, a surprised look on his face.

”Oh come now Dimitri, don’t look so shocked.” Said Balalaika, grinning. Dimitri laughed and shook his head.

”In a good mood today then?” He said, accent heavy. He had never been too good at English, but had improved enough to threaten people and hold a conversation and, for Balalaika, that was more than satisfactory.

”Yes, I am.” She said. 

“Good, I do not like it when you are in bad mood.” Dimitri said, giving her a cheeky wink. 

Normally, if anyone but Cassidy winked at her, she would have their eyeballs gouged out and stuck on cocktail sticks, but she made a special exception for Dimitri. The dark-skinned man had a special place in her heart and if anyone dared to put a foot wrong in his or her presence, she would promptly have them killed. Ruthless? Maybe. But this is Dimitri, her closest friend.

”How are things with your любовник?” Asked Balalaika. She knew his boyfriend personally, even though Dimitri was an intensely private individual. The two had an almost perfect relationship, their synergy was a beautiful thing to watch. Even though the two bickered like an old married couple, they still managed to be a perfect fit.

“А, Krishna is fine.” He said honestly. “He want to go see his family, in India, so I need to get fake passport.” 

“I’ll take care of that.” She told him, holding up a hand when he started to protest. Another thing she had learned about her comrade over the years is that he hated to accept help, be that a minor thing like a fake passport or something more major. “I’ll get one for you too. Take a holiday for a week or two.”

”But-“ He started to say, clearly not enjoying the fact that Balalaika wanted to help out. He fell silent when she interrupted him.

”I insist, Dimitri. How long has it been since you two went away together?” 

“Three years.” He answered sullenly. 

“Exactly, tell Krishna I send my regards by the way.” She said. Dimitri fell silent, mulling over the offer as he drove.

”Fine.” He said. “But I will owe you for this.” He picked up his phone off of the well in the car and handed it to Balalaika. “Please, call Krishna and tell him news.”

”Of course.” Balalaika said, turning her head away so that her friend couldn’t see the shit-eating grin she had on her face; it would only piss the man off that she had won.

* * *

After a short conversation with Dimitri’s boyfriend, in which there was a lot of excited yelling and a good few “thank you’s”, Balalaika arrived at her destination. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She told Dimitri as she got out of the car. Her friend nodded and started the engine, pulling away from the pavement and driving off into the night. Balalaika turned around and looked at the building that she was meeting Cassidy in.

It was nothing special on the outside (or the inside, to be honest), but it served real Irish whiskey, Cassidy’s favourite, so the two often frequented the place. The crumbling exterior was off-putting even to residents of Roanapur, so there were few people who knew of this place. Boarded up windows and shoddy brickwork finished up the whole “bar-at-the-end-of-the-world” look. Balalaika and Cassidy’s love had blossomed slowly, each of them hesitant to trust the other fully, but when they eventually got over their original cautiousness, it had spiralled into something beautiful, something the both of them treasured and cherished. 

As she strode around to the front of the bar, she was greeted by a group of three men drinking. Balalaika tensed, she didn’t trust the men of Roanapur as far as she could throw them. There was something about the small island that turned men into animals (the women, not so much, in her experience at least), so one always had to be careful about who they associated with, or even passed by on the street. 

Balalaika’s hand went to her pocket as she passed by the men, who leered at her in a fashion that she supposed was supposed to be intimidating in some way. Although she was not intimidated, she was cautious. Balalaika was nobody’s fool, she knew exactly what those men must be thinking when they saw a nicely dressed woman who, for the most part, looked completely defenceless.

”Hey baby!” Shouted one of the men. Balalaika rolled her eyes and turned to face them with a smile. It would do no good to ignore them, that way they could get her when her back was turned to them.

”Yes, gentlemen?” She said, hand still firmly in her pocket. 

“Fancy a quick one?” Said another of the men. Balalaika flipped a piece of blonde hair over her shoulder, she had taken it down from it’s usual high ponytail in the car earlier. 

“Not even if you were the last man on earth.” She said, giving them a sour look. The man’s face quickly rearranged itself in anger. 

“Too good for us, huh? Stuck up bitch.” He said, advancing towards her, beer bottle in hand. As he passed by the table, he smashed it on the hard surface, hand arching through the air in a fast motion and the sound ricocheting off the high walls of the buildings that surrounded them. The other two men looked at each other and grinned, following suit; smashing their bottles of alcohol against the table and stepping towards her. 

Balalaika raised an eyebrow. “Is this supposed to intimidate me, gentlemen?” She asked calmly, hand sliding further into her pocket. She could feel the weight of the object in her hand, hopefully there wouldn’t be a need for it, but it seemed increasingly likely that these rash men would need teaching a lesson.

The man who had first advanced towards her let out a drunken roar, obviously irritated that she wasn’t cowering in fear, ready to be their next victim. Balalaika wrinkled her nose.

”You disgust me.” She said as he charged towards her, bottle drawn and already arcing down towards her face.

BANG.

He crumpled to the ground, a shocked look upon his face. Then, an earsplitting screech ripped through the air, making Balalaika wince slightly. The .44 magnum in her hand smoked slightly, the thin wisps trailing lazily through the air and circling around her head like a splintered halo. A fitting metaphor really.

He continued to scream before another loud gunshot sounded. Then the screaming stopped, leaving a deadly silence in it's wake. In front of her, the man lay broken on the floor; a bullet hole in his kneecap and another in his head, chunks of brain and bone littering the space around him. Balalaika looked down the barrel of the gun at the other two men and pointed it slowly, threateningly at each of them.

"Now," She said calmly. "Who else wants a turn?" The men looked at each other before dropping their bottles to the ground and carefully lifting their arms up into the air in a very sloppy "we surrender" position. "That's what I thought." She snorted, gun still trained on them both. "Leave."

The two men scuttled away as quickly as their drunken legs could take them, swaying back and forth as they disappeared down the next street. Balalaika crouched down as low as her high heels would let her, inspecting the corpse of the first man. There were burn marks on his forehead where the hot bullet had hit him almost exactly in the centre of the front of his skull, his eyeballs were rolled into the back of his head, half shut with just the whites showing. Balalaika raised an eyebrow, what a mess she had made all over this fine establishment's beer garden (well, what counted as a beer garden in Roanapur). Stepping lightly over the cadaver, she pushed open the door of the bar. 

Inside, the building had minimal décor. The walls were plain concrete and the floor was the cheapest laminate one could possibly buy. The bar itself was slightly more luxurious, solid wood with the standard bulletproof plating that most bars on the island had. There was some sort of soft Latin music playing in the background, creating a soothing, if slightly sleazy, atmosphere. Balalaika spotted Cassidy's curly brown hair from across the room, her trademark cowboy hat perched on top of her head and her boots gently tapping on the floor. The short, Mexican woman looked as lovely as ever, brown eyes surveying the room in front of her. When her pupils, surrounded by burnt umber irises, landed on Balalaika, her entire face lit up.

"Mi amor!" She yelled, waving like a maniac, causing the other two patrons and the bartender to look up briefly. They soon went back to their business when they saw it was only the two lovers again. Balalaika gave her girlfriend a winning smile, genuinely happy to see her again. It had been more than a few hours since they had seen each other and, whilst being away wasn't unusual for either of them, it didn't mean that they did not miss each other.

Balalaika reached the table and sat down across from Cassidy. They sat for a few moments in silence, both staring at the one who sat opposite them.

"So," Said Cassidy, leaning forwards and clasping Balalaika's pale hand in her tanned one. "How's it goin'?"

"Not so bad, I have a few clients who aren't paying up. Nothing to worry about though, I've taken care of them." Said Balalaika, giving Cassidy a shark-ish smile. The other woman laughed quietly, knowing that Balalaika really meant she'd taken them to the docks and frightened the shit out of them so that they paid up.

"That's good amante." She said, stroking her thumb over Balalaika's hand gently. The blonde haired woman shivered slightly at the sensation, still (even after the year they'd been together) not used to the sensation of her lover's gentle touch. "So, what drink can I get you?"

"Something fruity and alcoholic that tastes nothing like alcohol." Said Balalaika, squeezing Cassidy's hand. The other woman laughed loudly, the sound echoing slightly in the almost empty bar.

"Been that kinda day, huh?" She giggled, letting go of Balalaika's hand and pushing her chair out with her feet. Balalaika watched her walk to the bar and order the drinks, slightly in disbelief at how she got so lucky. Karma must've fucked up with her, because she was, in no way, a good person, yet she had Cassidy. Someone both ferocious and beautiful inside and out, someone who cared deeply for those they trusted and someone who, above all, loved Balalaika unconditionally.

By the time Cassidy came over with the drinks, Balalaika was thoroughly lost in thought. She only came to when Cassidy snapped her fingers in front of her face.

"Sorry." She said, smiling and taking a sip of her drink.

"It's okay amante, what's on your mind?" Said Cassidy gently. Balalaika hummed and thought for a second.

"I was thinking about you." She said with a smile. Cassidy looked delighted at that fact, beaming at Balalaika for a good ten seconds. Then her face turned mischievous.

"Oh? You were thinking about me huh? Were you thinking about how much you wanna f-" She was cut off by the sound of Balalaika smacking her gently.

"None of that in public please." She said demurely, giving Cassidy a look.

"Aw, you're no fun." She said, huffing slightly. Balalaika only smiled and took Cassidy's hand again and pulled her in close.

"And yet, you love me." She whispered into her ear. Cassidy giggled breathlessly.

"I sure do, amante."


End file.
